Shorter standings
In Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, McLaren failed to place a driver on the podium for the first time this season. Oscar Piastri finished fourth, while Lando Norris was forced to retire due to a mistake of his own as he attempted to overtake his teammate. This misstep by the Woking-based team was capitalised on by their closest rivals in the standings: George Russell, currently fourth in the championship, took his first win of the year, and Max Verstappen, third in the title race, finished second in Montreal.
While the order of the standings remained unchanged, the gaps between drivers tightened. Oscar Piastri now leads Norris by 22 points, Max Verstappen by 43, and George Russell by 62. Despite this, the Dutch world champion did not appear particularly optimistic about his chances of defending his crown for a fifth consecutive season. Speaking in the post-race press conference, Max Verstappen effectively wrote off McLaren’s Canadian struggles as a one-off.
RB21 not competitive enough
“What needs to happen for there to be a direct fight between me and Oscar? Honestly, a lot has to happen,” said the Red Bull driver. “First of all, we need to start winning races more regularly. How? By becoming more competitive. This was a good weekend, but not competitive enough. As I said earlier, we have moments where we can win here and there, but we need to make the car faster. That would make life much easier. We’re working hard with the team.”
“Sure, some parts are coming, but will they be enough? I don’t know,” the reigning champion continued. “In this sport, small margins can lead to better results every single weekend. But so far, what McLaren has shown all season is remarkable, and they’re hard to beat. They had a not-so-great weekend, but they’re still by far the favourites. And they won’t be easy to beat. But in the upcoming races, we really want to try and improve our car,” Max Verstappen concluded ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.
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